Renewable energy in the MENA

This chapter focuses on the Europe's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) neighbouring countries, excluding Turkey, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. Renewable energy investment towards the MENA increased every year by 36% on average, registering the world's second-highest mean annual growth rate only following China. It is true that renewable energy deployment cannot be a 'saviour-for-all', and that it requires fundamental domestic reforms, like existing energy market pricing mechanisms or providing different fiscal and regulatory incentives. The data in the chapter shows a positive upward trend by registering a dramatic increase in investments towards the MENA between 2012 and 2014. At regional level, the European Union (EU) and its MENA neighbours are engaged in intergovernmental cooperation within the Mediterranean Solar Plan. In collaboration with scientists of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation put forward a vision of an EU-MENA community of shared clean energy and water interests.